MATEGORDA COUNTY CITIZENS ORGANIZE AGAINST NUCLEAR PLANT EXPANSION

By Ella Tyler

The first nuclear plant license application to be filed in the US in 29 years is for two new units at the South Texas Project nuclear power station site in Matagorda County.

The application was filed September 24, 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing is already scheduled for this Tuesday, February 5th,. Sessions will run from 1:30 to 4:30 pm and from 7 to 10 pm, at the Bay City Civic Center, 201 7th Street. Anyone who wants to make comments may register at the meeting up to 15 minutes before the start of each session.

Susan Dancer of Matagorda County Coalition for Nuclear Industry Accountability (M.C.C.N.I.A), calls Matagorda County “Ground Zero” for acceptance or rejection of nuclear energy’s comeback in the United States. She warns that the application “will be as good as approved within five weeks” if local citizens don’t raise their concerns at the hearing.

Dancer said M.C.C.N.I.A was formed in 2005 to react to STP officials announcement that it was going to outsource some of the “long-promised, long-awaited jobs” elsewhere and the county’s economy started to collapse. Although STP management reversed the decision, M.C.C.N.I.A members want to know more about the economics of the plan. Questions they want answered include:

• Who benefits economically and who will it cost?
• Will taxes go up and will the builder receive tax exemptions?
• Will the county services and infrastructure be able to handle the influx of temporary workers?
• Will workers be hired locally?

Several statewide groups are also working against approval of this application. Karen Hadden, Executive Director of Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition, said that other questions are:

• Will there be a bigger risk of cancer from more radiation?
• What will be the effect of the plants heavy use of water?
• How will the plant prepare for hurricanes and other disasters?

Hadden and Dancer both say that NRG has not demonstrated that there is a need for another power plant.

The STP supplies Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and surrounding areas. The present two reactors produce nearly 2,700 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 2.1 million homes. According to NRG, the two new reactors will equal or exceed that amount.

Dancer says that proposed federal subsidies for nuclear power plants for 2008 amount to $250 million to $400 million per unit. She suggests that a much lesser amount subsidized to weatherproof existing homes and improve efficient construction technique would negate the need to build more power plants.

Hadden and Dancer have unexpected support for their claim that there may not be a need for another power plant.

Earlier this week, the EPA issued a press release saying that wind power has propelled the cities of Dallas and Houston onto the Environmental Protection Agency’s national list of top green power purchasers. Dallas took the ninth spot on the list by buying 40 percent of its power from wind sources. Houston grabbed the No. 12 spot by using wind power for 20 percent of its purchased-electricity needs. According to the EPA, these two purchases equal the amount of electricity needed to power an estimated 61,000 average American homes each year. Also, Austin and Austin Independent School District were ranked at number five and seven on the EPA’s Top 10 Local Government green power purchasers.

That same press release announced the results of EPA’s 2007 Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge, a 13-month campaign that encouraged America’s largest corporations to collectively purchase green power in excess of five billion kilowatt-hours per year. Challenge participants, including nine Texas-based companies, pushed EPA to surpass its goal by more than 130 percent. For more information, including NRG’s press release about the application, see www.stpnoc.com; or SEED Coalition’s website about this issue; or www.mccnia.homestead.com.